Smart Business Magazine, September 2015

September 2015 Smart Business Akron Canton 15 CONTENT MARKETING WORLD 2015 FEATURE One of the latest trends in content marketing involves companies using either text or video or both to answer customer questions before the customer experience becomes an unhappy one There is a whole field out there of how to videos by companies saying Hey heres a short YouTube clip on how to do this and how to do that which should when executed correctly prevent people from having to call you right says Jay Baer president of Convince Convert LLC Proactive content If such content is done well it can reduce a companys customer service costs so there are benefits to content that extends beyond just we got a customer out of it says Baer who was named one of Americas top three social media consultants by Fast Company It all goes along with the tendency Latest content marketing trend uses how to videos to teach and inform and head off consumer questions A happier experiencethat most people would rather learn for themselves In the recent past it wasnt that way A company treasured all its touches with customers hoping for an opportunity to sell or upsell Sometimes this concept of we want to talk to the customers is great except the customers dont want that Baer says Most people dont want to have an actual conversation unless they have to It is a hassle Most people would rather self educate Once consumers got to the point where there were no other resources available at their fingertips to answer their questions then they would begrudgingly call Thats where companies would start to say Well what if we figured out all the questions anybody would ever have about us What if we answered those questions proactively This customer service content could evolve and grow as additional questions and responses that had not come up previously get added to the list They prefer to self educate Baer says of consumers They can learn by themselves and then only when they are ready to buy do they actually pick up the phone Research says in the B2B world on average 67 percent of buyer decisions have been made before consumers ever contact the company By the time consumers pick up the phone they are pretty much sold he says It used to be you would walk into a store and ask what they had to sell there You would never think of doing that now You call as the last resort not as the first resort One of the workshops Baer will conduct at Content Marketing World 2015 will be about a concept called atomization of content This is where you take a big idea and execute that idea in a bunch of small ways in many many different places he says You execute that idea here here here with slight variations in each channel in each form You set up a plan to atomize content and it becomes much more efficient because you are not reinventing the wheel each time How to reach Convince Convert LLC 602 616 1895 or www convinceandconvert com SOCIAL MEDIA To learn more about Content Marketing World like its Facebook page www facebook com ContentMarketingWorld and follow on Twitter @ CMIContent BY DENNIS SEEDS DSEEDS@ SBNONLINE COM Editors note One of the premier events in content marketing Content Marketing World 2015 will take place Sept 8 11 at the Cleveland Convention Center To register for Content Marketing World 2015 visit www contentmarketingworld com registration

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